Sharon's First Interrogation
by Starman3569
Summary: Sharon is finally busted. How does she save herself? And what happens to the Cylon?
1. Default Chapter

R and R Please :)

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains references to the ending of Season 1. DO NOT READ another word if you don't want it spoiled for you. You have been warned.

Summary: Needless to say, I don't own the characters. I love Boomer though, she's my favorite character, so that's why I went soft on her. This takes place just after the end of Episode 13.

"Mutiny aside, Lee, I need you worse than I need to send your ass to a brig cell," Colonel Tigh said to his CAG, Captain Lee Adama. "Now, do I have your support, or do I need to send you to the prison barge?"

"I'll obey any orders you give, sir. An apology won't fix what happened on Colonial One."

"Good. I've ordered whatever that is that shot your father taken to the secondary brig. Get on a uniform and take the bridge. I'm going down there to talk to it."

"Yes, sir. Don't kill it, sir."

"Excuse me, Captain?"

"I said don't kill it," Lee said strongly. "I'll do that myself."

"That's what I like to hear," Tigh said as he patted Lee on the shoulder.

Tigh left the bridge and walked through Galactica's corridors to a small room, no bigger than 4 meters square. The secondary brig was the real jail cell on the massive ship. Main brig wasn't designed for serious criminals with its cell walls consisting only of bars. Drunks got to sleep in main brig, working off a binge on shore leave.

Lieutenant Sharon Valerii sat on the single cot in her cell. Her head rested squarely in her hands. Instinctively, she snapped to attention when the senior officer entered the room.

"Colonel, sir."

"Sit down, whatever the hell you are! What are you anyway?"

"Cylon Model 8, Colonel. That's what I am. Programmed to infiltrate the Colonial Service. Mission accomplished."

"And you shot Commander Adama…"

"Sir, I can explain what I did…"

"You'll explain it to our cyberneticists when they take you apart…"

"I'm sorry for what I did," Sharon yelled. "Colonel, I'm a machine at heart, a machine that can do everything you humans can do. But I was programmed to be one of you, and at the same time, I was programmed to carry out secret missions, get in the way, cause havoc. Can you program a computer to do two things at the same time?"

"They did it to you, didn't they?"

"And they screwed up. You can't trust me, Colonel. I know that. But I can tell you a couple things that will make you at least listen to me. Commander Adama told me to go blow up a base ship, the one over Kobol. You know what? I did it. Not the Cylon in me, Sharon did it."

"Why?"

"Because I'm flawed. My peers would say I spent too much time around humans. The programming that allowed me to act and be human, it beat out the other side. Why do you think I shot myself? I did it because I didn't want to be the instrument of your destruction."

"Bullshit, you shot the Commander…"

"And if I could trade places with him, I would now. That was the Cylon's last act. You can't ever believe that, and I don't expect you to. But I killed a lot of Cylons when I detonated that nuke in the base ship. Let me ask you something, Colonel, if you had an agent among the Cylons, would they go blow up a battlestar just to prove their loyalty to the Cylons? I doubt it."

"They probably wouldn't…"

"I'll tell you something else, and maybe, just maybe you'll believe me…"

"Tell me how the Cylons tracked us after we first fled the colonies."

"They had a raider on the hull of the Olympic Carrier. You jump, it recorded the jump and jumped out in the chaos of the fleet reforming. The whole thing with the timing, that was just to get under your skin. The base stars doing the chasing could have been on you in a few moments. They like the thrill of the hunt, Colonel. You had time to make it interesting."

"And the people on the ship?"

"I don't know. Colonel, I will tell you that you have a much bigger problem in your midst."

"Go on." Tigh thought through the raider theory, and it did make sense. Dradis was off line for a few seconds after the jump, and in that time, the spy raider could have left the jump zone undetected.

"Do you remember when your wife showed up? Commander Adama had her tested."

"I do. He was right to do so." Tigh didn't believe that statement for a second. He knew Ellen wasn't a Cylon.

"I was the one who saved Baltar back on Caprica. I didn't know who he was, but Helo gave up his seat for the man. I went to Baltar's lab, I heard scuttlebut that he was working on a way to detect Cylons, and at the time, I didn't know that I was one. I went to him and blackmailed him into testing me. He claimed I was clean, that I wasn't a Cylon. We both know that…"

"You're lying…"

"Colonel Tigh, I am not lying. Check it out. Your man Baltar is trouble. Top defense scientist escapes from Caprica, and from all accounts I've heard, he's not exactly the most mentally stable person in the fleet. He looked at the results, got scared, and started playing with the keyboard like a man possessed. He pronounced me clean. That is incorrect."

Tigh didn't care much for Baltar anyway. The Colonel hated scientists, especially ones who truly believed they knew it all. And now, Baltar made Vice President. Was Tom Zarek such a bad choice? Tigh didn't think so.

"You're sure of that?"

"I'm not lying to you. Why should I lie about it? I'm dead anyway, you're not going to trust me, and it's not like I can run off to the nearest base ship and expect them to take me back. They know I'm broken now."

"Is Baltar a Cylon?"

Boomer looked at the Colonel. "No. But he's under the influence of one. I sensed a presence around him when I saw him in his lab."

"I require descriptions of all the human-appearing Cylons," Tigh said.

"There are 12. Give me a pad and I'll draw them for you."

"Remember, we know some of them, so we'll be able to check you."

"You ask, I'll give."

Tigh ordered one of the Marines at the door to go get paper and pencil for Sharon. He seethed as he watched Sharon carefully draw the faces of each Cylon model. An hour passed without words between the two before Sharon handed 12 pieces of paper back to Colonel Tigh.

"I even drew myself. Sorry if the quality isn't all that good, art wasn't something I developed a skill for."

"Are you sure about this one?" Tigh said as he held a picture of Six to the bars for Sharon to see. He remembered Six as being Shelly Godfrey, assistant to some other damn scientist with some far-flung accusation about Baltar.

"Six. A persuasive being. Good at getting to human males. Most of those models have a dislike for my model."

"Really?" Tigh asked.

"They find me to be weak. We have our differences."

Tigh blinked when he reached the 11th page. He glared at Sharon in complete disbelief.

"I see you found Eleven. The male version of Six, only designed to look older and more mature. When you think about it, does he really surprise you though? He's a troublemaker who can seduce a woman."

"I'm not surprised by anything now," Tigh said. "If you need food, tell the guards, they'll get you whatever you need to keep you alive."

"Thank you, sir. I trust you'll be getting to work now."

"After I check out Baltar. You're sure he tested you?"

"I'm positive. And he told me I was not a Cylon."

"I'll never trust you, but thank you for telling me this. It won't go unremembered," Tigh said sincerely. If she was right about Baltar, getting Gaeta to figure out how the Cylon detector was rigged shouldn't be all that hard. Then Tigh could go after the big fish, that Number Eleven.


	2. Tigh Reacts

Note: This story contains spoilers, now all throughout Season 1. Do NOT read this if you do not want to be spoiled. (I know, you already read Chapter 1, but I hate people who don't adequately protect spoilers)

Innogen: Answer's here! I really thought it was obvious, I thought I gave too many hints, but I guess not (in a good way, of course)

Ain't Nobody: Chapter 3 goes back to the interrogation (Tigh had to act quick on what he found out). I always thought that when Sharon came out, Baltar would be hosed.

Zelinia: Boomer's on my wallpaper at work! She's by far my favorite character, and yeah, there should be many more fics centered on her.

Thanks for commenting, I really, really appreciate it!

Colonel Saul Tigh had the fleet in his hand. Bill Adama was in sick bay fighting for his life, and a mutineer was running the bridge. This wasn't the way he wanted to get his first command, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Tigh walked out of the secondary brig, faced by four Marines assigned as guards.

"If it tries to escape," Tigh said. He paused. "If it tries to escape, shoot to subdue. Don't kill it. If it wants anything to eat or drink, see that whatever is brought down here."

"Sir?" the lead Marine asked.

"You heard me," Tigh shouted. "Don't kill Lieutenant Valerii unless necessary."

Tigh went to CIC and found the whole place eerily calm. Lee had that effect on people. He knew how to say the right thing, and for that, Tigh was grateful. The XO couldn't say the right things, it wasn't in his job description.

"Captain, walk with me," Tigh said after entering the compartment. He and Lee headed for the walkway overlooking the pit and the central Dradis console.

"What did it tell you?" Lee asked Tigh quietly, doing his best not to be heard by anyone in the command center.

"A lot," Tigh answered, handing Lee the 12 drawings provided by Sharon. "She drew those."

Lee flipped through the pages. "Seen him, seen her… that was the assistant that accused Dr. Baltar of being a traitor, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Tigh muttered. "Go on."

"Seen him," Lee said as he found the page with Leoben Conroy. "More than I care to."

"Go on."

Lee hit page 11 and nearly dropped the papers all over the bridge. "Holy frack!"

"I want him tested, but if I find out he's a Cylon, I swear to the Lords of Kobol, I will personally rip that sonofabitch from limb to limb."

Lee stared at the paper. He noticed the short-cropped, dark hair. The older features struck Lee as odd, but the slightly rounded face left no doubt who the 11th Cylon was. It was a face Lee once admired, but after seeing the drawing, that admiration turned to Hell-fired hatred.

"I'll need Mr. Gaeta. Apparently, Dr. Baltar wasn't as honest with us as he could have been."

"Does that surprise you, sir?"

"No. Valerii says that he has been faking the test results. She said he tested her, and she came back clean. I want Gaeta to tear into that machine and see if he can figure out what tests have been forged and if he can run a clean test. We do have a subject that will show Cylon now, guaranteed, and as for now, she's cooperating."

"She should, we'll kill her otherwise." Lee stared at Tigh for a moment. The Colonel was surveying the CIC below him, watching how the people moved quickly and quietly about their jobs. "Colonel? What did she tell you down there? You can't seriously trust a Cylon!"

"I don't trust her. Not now. Probably not ever. But for now, she gave me good information, and I have to investigate it."

"I understand, sir."

"I want a Raptor and two Vipers on standby. Gaeta doesn't sleep until he fixes that Cylon detector. Once it's fixed, I want Doc Cottle on board, and we'll go get a blood sample to be the second to check."

"Understood. He's on Colonial One right now. Sir, did she blow up the base ship?"

"Racetrack confirmed it. She did the job we asked her to do."

"We can't trust her…"

"Captain, if you were an agent on a base star, and they gave you a job, to go blow up Galactica, would you do it to prove your loyalty as a Cylon?"

"Of course I wouldn't…"

"She did. Like it or not, that's a point in her favor. Your father would agree, and you know it."

Lee sighed and handed Tigh the 12 crucial pieces of paper. "Yeah, and that's why I'm not him. I don't have to trust her, I don't have to even question her motives."

"Our survival depends on information. We have a Cylon in our brig spewing information. If we find that it is correct, we will act on it. That's our job."

"Does Gaeta have a jump plotted outta here in case a base ship shows up?"

"Yes, sir, he does."

"Send him to the lab with two Marines. I want reports every hour on his progress, and I want reports on your father at the same intervals. In the meanwhile, make sure that Raptor and the Vipers are ready to go. We have a date with Mr. Thomas Zarek once the detector is up and running."


	3. The Second Chat

Tigh headed back to the secondary brig. He wanted desperately to go to Sick Bay and see Bill, see how the man who gave him a second (and a third and a fourth) chance was doing after being shot twice in CIC. The walk gave Tigh a chance to think about the shooting, think about how he should have reacted. He did the best he could possibly do. And now, he had to do his best for Galactica.

The Colonel wondered what a drink would be like. How the alcohol would lovingly burn as it trailed through his throat and into his stomach, how the compound would affect his thoughts, would calm his nerves – all that ran through his mind. Almost as quickly as the walk began, it ended at the heavily secured room known to all as the "real jail cell."

Sharon was seated on her cot, eating a meal of standard rations. She noticed the Colonel, who indicated by a wave of the hand that she need not stand.

"I appreciate the food, sir. We do need to eat."

"I thought you did."

"We're working on the Cylon detector. Do you have any information that would help?"

"No. I don't know anything about it. Maybe if I looked at it, I could see something that your people couldn't."

"Why didn't you tell us about the Raider tracking our jumps or any of these other revelations?"

Sharon sighed as she sat her food aside. "I didn't know for sure. It's like there were two beings in here, each one fighting for control. I didn't know who I was until I landed on the base ship. The nuke jammed on the rail, so I went out to knock it off, and when I did, I saw a bunch of, well, of me's, sir. I got some information from them, they were trying to get me to come home. I saw the Raider jumping, I saw a lot of things that I'm still trying to figure out."

"You blew up the water tanks, didn't you?" Tigh quietly asked.

"Yes, I did. And I also found water. I suspected something was wrong with me then, it was like I couldn't say the words over that ice planet. I fought that entity this whole time. But when I was on the base ship, it all came clear. I know so much now."

"I'll bet you do," Tigh said.

"Sir, I don't know which way is up. Half of me is Cylon, and that half right now is controlled. She's not coming out. But at the same time, I'm scared. Everything I ever knew is gone. I'm not me, I'm something else, something that I don't like. They programmed me good, sir. Too good."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I'm human. They wanted to make the perfect human, but they wanted to be able to turn her off when they needed to. It doesn't work that way. The other two you've come across, the programmers got that right. They didn't get me right. I was one of the first programmed to be like this."

"So you're saying that you're the experiment?"

"I am. I can't do this anymore…"

"Do you want to help us or help the Cylons?"

"I blew up a base star," Sharon yelled. "What more do I have to do? Everything I've done to harm you, I've done something to counter it. The only thing I can't fix is shooting the Commander!"

Tigh watched Sharon start crying. He couldn't believe what he was seeing, a Cylon showing emotions far beyond anything he expected possible. Sharon cried into the napkins provided with her meal for at least five precious minutes.

"Sharon," Tigh said as calmly as he could, "I need you to get it together. Now, that drawing you gave me of Eleven. You know who that is, right?"

"I couldn't believe it when I saw him on one of the telecasts of the Council meetings. The man who was one vote away from the Vice Presidency is one of us."

"Did we elect a smarter choice?" Tigh said wryly.

"We could debate that point, sir. Damned if we do and damned if we don't."

"I hate every politician. I hate 'em, I frackin' hate 'em," Tigh muttered.

"Do you hate them worse than Cylons?" Sharon asked.

Tigh chuckled. "At this point, they're running neck and neck for the top of the list. Will the Cylons come after us?"

"Not for a while. From what I saw on the base ship and what information they sent me, they're trying to figure out where they went wrong with me. You have a couple days maybe."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Let's see," Sharon said as she paced around her cell, "I'm going to live the rest of my life in a jail cell, as a circus freak, with everyone in the fleet coming by to see the evil Cylon that betrayed us and saved us at the same time. I was human, sir, I had a history, I had parents who died, I grew up. I had all that, and it was all snatched away from me in one day back on Caprica when the Cylons came home. So, no, sir, I doubt I'll be okay. Colonel, you don't have much time, go fix your detector and weed out all the Cylons who are in the fleet."

"We went public once…"

"NO! Do not do that. I beg of you, Colonel, do not go public again! If you do, and there are more Cylons out there, they'll go self-destructive and do more damage than you can possibly imagine. You have to go about this quietly. Take them down one at a time."

"How can we keep them from telling all their brethren that we've captured one."

Sharon handed Tigh a couple pieces of paper. "It's a cage, of sorts, but it will interfere with the signals that the Cylons send to one another. If your engineer has questions, I'll answer them. He can confirm that the cage will not amplify their signals."

"I'll get started on this right away," Tigh said as he walked away. The Colonel paused at the door and spun around on his heels.

"Question, Colonel?"

"Tell me something… how are you not still receiving signals from the others?"

Sharon shivered as she put her hands on the bars. "When I got back from nuking the base ship, I knew my Cylon side had received orders, but I didn't know what they were. Buried somewhere in that flood of information, I found out how to cut myself off."

"What did you do?"

"My medulla oblongata looks and feels like yours. In reality, it's a link between Cylons. When Cylons say their consciousness will go to another body, they aren't kidding. I don't know the biology of it, and you probably can't figure out how, but when a Cylon has to cut itself off, because its personality is infected in some way, there's a built-in way to do it. I did it. I shoved a needle into my brain, Colonel. They can't tell me what to do anymore," Sharon said through tears. "I win, not them, and not that other half of me."


	4. Sharon's Thoughts

Sharon picked up the pad and pencils provided by the guards at Colonel Tigh's order. She thought for a minute, trying to reflect on what the past 24 hours had involved for her: the discovery of her true nature, her betrayal of Commander Adama, and what one could argue was the ultimate sell-out, giving up her own people.

She sat her tray on the floor and pushed it to the cell door. The guards didn't respond, and that was fine with her. Sharon knew her life was over. So, she started writing about it.

What did I do? Commander Adama had to call me right to the bridge, he didn't give me enough time to take care of the problem. I stole one of the ultra-fine needles off one of the meds in the emergency kit on (what used to be) my Raptor. Fortunately, I had a place to keep it until I had time to sever the connection – my hair. I knew the Cylon had a mission on the bridge, and I had to go there.

So, then in the blink of an eye, I'm in the brig. The guards left me alone for just long enough so I could end this whole thing once and for all. The procedure was bloodless, thankfully. Shove it in, snap off the end, and press. All done, and I'm not a Cylon anymore. I figured Captain Adama would come down and just shoot me, but it was Tigh. I always respected the Colonel. Even though his loyalty to the Commander was intense, I knew the man would listen to me.

What else can I tell them? Information is going to buy my survival. I've told them who the Cylons are, I've told them how to cut them off once captured. Everything else is guess work. I don't know how to fix a Raider. Starbuck did a good enough job of that anyway. I can't imagine if I'd been the one to find it, they'd probably throw it out thinking I planted a bomb in it.

I don't know what will happen to me. The Colonial Service will probably see to it that I'm executed. If I am, so be it. At least I died knowing that I'm more than my maker meant for me to be. Have I won or lost? Neither, I think I just puckered up and kissed my sister. Damn cliché. But that means I really lost, because the thought of doing that disgusts me so thoroughly that I'd probably not miss if I had a gun in my hand right now.

I need rest now. They think Cylons don't, but they do. Just not as much as they do. So, what's the term… "until next time, Dear Diary." That'll just have to do.


	5. The Cylon Detector

"Sir, I just can't do this," Lieutenant Gaeta reported to his temporary C.O., Colonel Tigh. "I don't know what Baltar has done to this thing, but the code loop will report everyone as being human, no matter what I do"

Gaeta sat in front of the same keyboard Gaius Baltar used to validate humans as being human. He looked over the pair of twin monitors at his superior, Gaeta's eyes tired and sleepy. It had been hours or days, the young man didn't know which, since he'd been to his rack, or even the head for that matter.

Tigh stared at the young man, whose face pleaded for assistance. "Okay, you want Sharon up here to look at it?"

"What can she do?"

"She may not be able to write the program, but she may be able to tell you something about the biology."

"Yes, sir, that could be helpful."

Tigh walked to the door of the compartment and picked up the clunky old handset of a phone from its cradle. He called the secondary brig and ordered the Marines to escort Sharon to the lab. The soldiers were to clear each corridor before bringing her through so that no member of the crew would try to harm the most precious prisoner in Colonial history. Ten long minutes passed before Valerii, surrounded by four guards, entered the lab, the same lab where she was pronounced to be human.

"Sir, I don't know much about these computers. I'll try though," Sharon told Tigh.

"Do the best you can. I'm going to go see the old man."

"Yes, sir," Sharon and Gaeta said at the same time.

Tigh ordered the guards to protect the room as if it was the brig and also ordered them to quietly activate the audio and video surveillance equipment installed after Baltar tried to destroy some computer equipment. Tigh left and walked through Galactica's hallways to the main sick bay. 29 hours had passed since Bill Adama took two rounds to the midsection. Doc Cottle and his team managed to operate and stabilize the Commander, but not before he faced significant blood loss. The senior Adama would face another round of surgery, but his life would continue, so said the medical staff.

"Bill," Tigh said apprehensively, scared a bit of the medical monitors surrounding Adama's bed.

"How are we doing?"

"Not bad. No word from Starbuck yet. Lee's acting as X.O. for now. We're just getting ready to get outta here if they show up."

"Why?" Adama asked without definition.

"She's a Cylon, and she's also cooperating…"

"Don't trust her…"

"I don't have a choice, she blew up a base ship. She's told me a lot, given us a lot of good information. We know what the 12 look like now, and you'd be surprised at who we found."

"Who's that?" Bill asked softly.

"Zarek. She told us about him." Tigh went on to tell Commander Adama about the rigged Cylon detector and the results, which Tigh found to be as Sharon had explained. "She's telling us everything."

"Keep one eye on her. This isn't over."

"I am. But for now, she is useful."

"Agreed," Adama uttered grudgingly.

"Visiting hours are over," Cottle said from behind Tigh. The doctor took a deep drag off his cigarette and practically exhaled into Tigh's face.

"Go," Adama said. "Keep my ship running like you always have."

"Yes, sir," Tigh said sharply, snapping to a crisp salute.

In the lab, the Marines grew tired of listening to Sharon detail things about Cylon biology to Gaeta, who searched through endless lines of computer code looking for the fractions of information Sharon could tell him. 90 minutes after starting their search, the second guard left the room.

The moment the guard stepped outside, Gaeta stopped typing and grabbed Sharon's hand. Valerii had leaned down to watch the computer monitor but had not taken a seat on one of the high stools in the lab.

"You are a traitor to your God," Gaeta said slowly and deliberately. "You will pay for this treachery. When I finish killing you, you will not find another body waiting on you. Your soul is gone."

Before Sharon could scream, Gaeta's other hand covered her mouth. He slammed Valerii onto a table, released her hand, and put his now free hand on her throat.

"Good bye, blasphemer," Gaeta said evilly as he squeezed Sharon's throat.

Mere seconds later, two rounds from a Marine's sidearm penetrated the bridge officer's forehead, splattering blood onto Sharon and the laboratory equipment. Sharon took a moment to recover as two of the guards helped her off the table. Tigh ran into the room just as the excitement ended.

"What happened?"

"It's all on camera," one of the guards said. "Gaeta grabbed her and started attacking. We came in and stopped him."

"He was talking like a Cylon," Sharon said. "He caught me by surprise."

"You drew those 12…"

"Then there must be more," Sharon said ominously. "There must be more that I don't know about."

"What now?" Tigh muttered to himself.

"Let me work on this machine, sir. I saw enough of what Gaeta was doing, I may be able to make it work. No promises, but I'll try."

"Did he hurt you?"

"I've been hurt worse."

"Then carry on," Tigh said. "I need a few minutes in my rack."

"Yes, sir. Colonel, may I make a request?"

"Go on," Tigh responded. "Quickly."

"I'd like one of the guards to stay in the room with me at all times. If there are other Cylons that I don't know about, then I'm not going to be very popular with them."

"I'll see to it," one of the guards in the room said. "We went to the head, sir."

"Dammit, you will not let that happen again!" Tigh yelled as he headed to his quarters.

Tigh thought to himself as he walked into his quarters. He was completely in Sharon's corner, and that wasn't a place he felt comfortable being. She was on Galactica's side, everything she had done to that point after her discovery was fully and completely on the side of the old BSG75 and her crew. Nevertheless, the facts disturbed Tigh. Bill would have to be convinced.

Tigh couldn't sleep immediately, he had things running through his mind that needed resolved. He found a copy of Starbuck's report on the interrogation of the Leoben Conroy model. That damn President ordered him spaced, even after Kara basically promised him that he'd live. As much as Tigh hated the Cylons, some of the things that happened after the destruction of the Colonies lowered the humans to the level of the Cylons. Those images did not sit well with the acting Commander of the Galactica. He determined that he wouldn't allow those feelings to impact what happened to Sharon. They couldn't – or the humans would be no better than those galmogging Cylons. And that simply couldn't be allowed to happen.


	6. Time to meet Number Eleven

Colonel Tigh made a trip to the lab after a shower, nap, and a meal. Cottle used the phone to relay the good news about Commander Adama – the recovery outpaced the schedule.

Sharon had laid her head down in front of the computer keyboard. She was sleeping, as best as she could with the bright overhead lighting beaming down on her position.

Tigh stopped for a moment, trying to be quiet. He tried to imagine what it was like to find out you were designed to be an instrument of genocide. Sharon went for five straight days when the Cylons were jumping in on the Fleet, and no one thought better of it. He made a mental note to check all the records of that time, to see if anyone else had superb endurance and to move them to the front of the testing line.

"Sir," Sharon said as she snapped to alertness. "I found a couple things that may interest you."

"You could have called…"

"I was tired, Colonel. Baltar was intentionally slowing down the process. I completed four tests in under 15 minutes."

"And?"

"You were negative, Commander Adama was negative, Captain Adama was negative, and I was positive. We can do some more control tests, but I think it's working again."

Tigh thought for a moment. "What about Gaeta? I'll send up a sample from his corpse."

"I didn't think about that, sir," Sharon said. "Bring it up and I'll run it through. The process is basically automated anyway."

A few minutes passed before one of Doc Cottle's assistants delivered a vial of blood to Sharon. She placed the vial into one of the centrifuges and began the testing. Five minutes passed, and the computer screen showed red. With the success, Tigh headed for the launch bay and headed to Colonial One.

Tigh ordered the Raptor to dock while the two MkII Vipers flew cover around the President's spacecraft. Tom Zarek was seated comfortably in his office, just a few corridors from the President's reception area.

"Representative Zarek," Tigh said formally, supported by four large Marine guards, "we'd like you to come to Galactica and submit a blood sample for Cylon testing."

"Excuse me?" Zarek asked. "I don't believe I'll do that."

"It's not a request," the Colonel reiterated.

"You can't order me…"

"Take him," Tigh ordered the guards. "Two of you clear the way back to the Raptor. If any of the President's people get in the way, make sure they regret their decision…"

"There will be no resistance," a female voice said from the doorway. President Roslin stood in the door. "Tom, we have all submitted samples. I expect nothing less from you."

"Madame President, I have to protest the intrusion…"

"Continue your operation, Colonel. I trust Adama is recovering?"

"He is, I will pass along your concern to him."

The guards manhandled Zarek and shackled his hands and feet. They dragged the man, literally kicking and screaming, to the Raptor, where they secured him into one of the seats. When Zarek continued babbling, Tigh ordered his mouth taped shut.

Tigh used the wireless to tell Galactica to have a corpsman waiting in the landing bay to take a blood sample from Zarek. As soon as the sample filled the vial, Tigh sent Zarek to the secondary brig, while ordering the guards to make sure the representative was quiet during the trip.

"Here," Tigh said, handing the sample to Sharon, "run it now."

"Who is it?"

"Let's do this one blind and find out."

"Have it your way," Sharon said as she began the test.

Tigh stood nervously behind Sharon as she typed a few commands into the computer. "Where'd you learn how to use the program?"

"Baltar wrote out all the instructions, as if he was setting it up to be used by someone else. He added a line to the program, telling the computer to count to 100 every time it did a step of the test. That slowed things down to Baltar's pace."

"How'd you find it?"

"The programming language isn't foreign to me. I did have a little computer class at the Colonial Service Academy. And I attended, unlike most pilots who hung out on the flight line."

Tigh chuckled to himself. He knew how pilots acted at that school. "It's red," he said, noting the results on the screen.

"Who is it?"

"Let's take a walk, shall we," Tigh said, inviting Sharon to go with him to chat with Zarek.

Sharon smiled. "It was Zarek, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah," Tigh said. "Now that bastard pays."

The pair, escorted by four guards, walked briskly to the secondary brig. Four more guards stood around the door to insure no harm would come to the prisoner. Tigh knew the test was correct as soon as Zarek looked at Sharon – the look on the man's face expressed anger so intense Tigh had not seen it among his crew after the destruction of Caprica.

"Well, that answers one question," Tigh said. "Eleven, right?"

"And now you know," Zarek said. "Thanks to that defect, no doubt."

Zarek stared at Sharon. Tigh looked between the two of them, watching a battle of eyes. After at least two minutes, Zarek shook his head in disgust, while Sharon smiled.

"Cylons can influence people," Sharon explained. "It's not telepathy, but more like a really strong charismatic influence. His doesn't work on me."

"You bitch, you cut yourself off!" Zarek yelled. "God will be displeased with you."

"Frak God," Sharon said as she walked up to the bars. "Frak all of you. God wanted to make his own race, and he made it. We're better than the Centurions, we have our own will, our own desires. You can play all the games you want, but when it's all over, I'm not a slave to God anymore. You are, you're stuck in a cage."

"A modified cage," Tigh said as he looked up into the ceiling. "If one runs a certain amount of current through the bars, it makes an effective shield against specific forms of radiation, including radio. Your raiders can jump in and try to…"

"God will have no mercy on your soul," Zarek said quietly.

"I don't need his mercy. Come to think of it, I don't want it. You'll need mercy when these people get their hands on you. And I don't mind being a part of it… I was bred to be, what did they say, an instrument of destruction. I'll be like a boomerang. I'll be home soon," Sharon said evilly. She winked at Zarek, who charged the bars and tried to grab Sharon.

Sharon took one step towards the bars, grabbed Zarek's arm at the elbow, held it steady, and used the bars to snap the Cylon's arm at its shoulder. Zarek fell to the floor in pain.

"Don't ever doubt whose side I'm on, Colonel. And Zarek, why don't you put in a call to God to fix your arm. I'm sure he'll be right along to take care of it."


	7. Lee catches up to Sharon

Sharon looked at Tom Zarek's trembling body. She smiled evilly, her brown eyes turning vicious. "I don't see anyone coming to help you."

"My help will come," Zarek said. "It will come and take care of you and your malfeasance."

"Leave him be," Tigh added. "We need to speak elsewhere."

Tigh, Sharon, and their flotilla of guards went to a conference room. Lee and the President were already seated at the table. Sharon flinched as soon as she saw the Commander's son, but she went to the seat offered by the President.

"What's next?" Roslin asked.

"They're in shock," Sharon explained. "The loss of a base ship is significant. They need time to anticipate your next move. I know why we came here now."

"Here to Kobol? The Prophecies," Roslin answered her own question.

"No, we came here because of the Cylons," Tigh said. "Gaeta plotted the jump. They've been carefully herding us here for a reason."

"Well?" Lee asked spitefully, staring at Sharon. "Let's hear it."

"To catch you off guard. You found a planet, you're breathing a sigh of relief. You'll put out a clarion call for any remaining stragglers to come here. And then they collapse on you like they did back at Caprica and the other colonies. You're susceptible to it."

"Colonel?" Roslin asked.

"It's a sound plan. Get us in one place and let us have it again. It's what I'd try to do if I was them."

"What can we do? How much time do we have?" Lee inquired impatiently.

"Maybe 24 hours. The forces they have over the planet now, that's nothing. We need to leave Kobol and never look back. As for where to go, I don't know. I don't have those answers."

"You're one of them," Lee said sarcastically.

"It doesn't mean I get the entire database, and things have changed. I can't guess, and I don't know where to go. You think I plotted my own jumps? This location is one of the most closely guarded Cylon secrets, and I didn't know where it was. I would suggest you start plotting new jumps, and do it quickly. This fleet is on the clock," Sharon declared.

"Madame President, we need to go see Commander Adama and make some decisions. Lieutenant, return to the lab and continue testing the samples we've collected. I'll see that you receive a new priority list."

"Yes, sir," Sharon replied.

Tigh and Roslin left the room before the guards could escort Sharon back to the lab. That gave Lee time to speak.

"Hold it," Lee said. "You may have pulled this act on the Colonel, but you're not pulling it on me. Your day is coming, Cylon, and when it does, I'll be on the firing squad, and I'll pay good cubits to see that I'm not issued a blank cartridge."

Not every man on a Colonial firing squad received a live round. Some received blanks to cool the guilt of putting another soldier to death. It allowed the squad to self-delude themselves into believing they didn't fire the fatal shot.

"Fine, Captain, get one of the guards' weapons and do it. Put me out of my misery and you can get your revenge."

Lee stared at Sharon's eyes. He tried to figure out if the Cylon was telling the truth. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

"Frankly, I don't care one way or the other now. By giving you information and advising you, I stay alive longer. Now is that a good thing or what, I don't know. I don't like the Cylons, and I sure as hell don't like myself. This isn't adding up to get me anywhere, it's just what I feel like doing. Take it or leave it. Now, are you going to escort me to the lab or what?"

"I don't understand you…"

"There's nothing to understand, Captain. I'm a screw-up as a Cylon. I'm a screw-up as a Colonial warrior. So why don't you just shoot me and put me out of your misery? You can do that or you can accept what I'm able to do and try to save what's left of your civilization. It's entirely up to you."

"Guard," Lee said gruffly, "take her back to the lab. This isn't over."


	8. Reflection

Author's notes: Since Boomer-G is dead, this is sorta AU now. It's fun to keep it going. This is my first attempt at songfic, of sorts… just found a new tune that I like and it sounded like it would fit in this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the song. And I'm certainly not making money off of it! (I'll include the singer and the song title in the next update, which won't be far in the future!)

Sharon walked with the guards back to the lab, the same lab where she'd nearly been killed hours before. Tigh's new list arrived ahead of her, 220 blood samples that sat in various trays and racks in makeshift refrigeration units scattered around the lab. She sighed at the sight of the foreboding task.

Fortunately for her, she found a way to do 10 tests at once, so she took the first samples and loaded them into the centrifuge. The two guards stood on the inside of the door, according to their orders from Colonel Tigh. Instead of staring at the screens, Sharon pulled out a small notepad from her uniform and began writing another entry in her personal log of the events.

Tigh wants me alive. Commander Adama's not sure. Lee's sure, he wants me as dead as Caprica. This is like a nightmare that I need to wake up from… and I can't get the song out of my head.

There's people talking  
They talk about me  
They know my name  
They think they know everything  
But they don't know anything  
About me

That's for sure, they don't know a thing about the real me. If they did, they'd understand how hard this is for me. I don't feel like I'm betraying my people, I feel like I did that when I shot Commander Adama.

I put my makeup on a Saturday night  
I try and make it happen  
Try to make it all right  
I know I make mistakes  
I'm living life day to day  
It's never really easy but it's ok

It's not okay. I'm just pretending it's okay. I'm dead already, my body just doesn't know it yet. Maybe I'll find a way to live day to day and somehow survive this. I need information, I need to find out whatever this plan "God" has for his creations is and reveal it before it's too late for what's left of humanity. I know who I'm looking for, and it's not likely they'll be all that forthcoming with information.

I wonder if I didn't blow it with Zarek. Maybe I shouldn't have snapped his arm at the shoulder. Nah, it was fun. Who am I trying to kid, I've been wanting to do that for a while now.

Am I done for? Yeah, probably. They need to win, and not just a fight like I gave 'em. No, I need to find home and tell them where it is. If I can come up with the location of the Cylon home world, they'll win. And when they do, I'll be the one who's earned salvation. Not the toasters.

There's 10 minutes gone. Time to determine the fate of 10 more people.

Goodbye Dear Diary, until next time...


	9. Mission Briefing: Kobol

Author's Note: The song is Wake Up by Hilary Duff (from Chapter 8). And of course, I don't own the characters or stuff.

Matthew: I think it could be part of why she went. Grace had a ton of work to do in Season 1 carrying off both Boomers (a lot of second unit shoots and stuff on the outskirts of Vancouver). It's a ton of work and expense for a show to basically be on set and on location at the same time, and for so long.

Legolanderin: Thanks! I'm glad ya like it. It's nice to get some sorta hometown looks!

Darlian: Oh, she needs more than a hug… and she may just get it… sometime!

Sharon made it through 100 of her priority samples before a pair of guards came into the lab and requested her to follow them. The phalanx of six men surrounded her and led her to the pilots' ward room. Only Lee Adama was present, and he stood at the podium from which he made all his annoucements.

"Take a seat, Boomer," Lee said as he pointed to the center chair in the front row.

"Is it electrified?" Sharon asked quietly. She tried to judge Lee's reaction to her joke.

"Not yet. Someday, but not yet."

Sharon nervously sat down. She looked at the pilot assignment boards and didn't see her name. That fact didn't surprise her, she likely would never see the inside of her Raptor again.

"We're going to Kobol to rescue the ground team. Colonel Tigh has ordered me to ask you how the best way to do it is, so tell me."

Sharon thought for a moment. "Cylons don't do things much differently than you do. They'll try to track the survivors, and if they can't find them, the Centurions will do their best to make sure you can't get to them either."

"How?" Lee asked.

"Barrage balloons, surface-to-air missile batteries, and ground fire. Again, same basic tools you use."

"So we can expect resistance?"

"I think so. I destroyed the base ship, but there were other ships in the air at the time. Your best bet would be to go in with the Raptor Dradis and cameras on high gain."

"We can't analyze all that data while we're over the planet," Lee observed. "We'd have to carry four or five backseaters."

"Record it and jump out. They'll think you found nothing and continue with their plans. You come back here, check out the data, find your people, and go get them. If they have Dradis active, a Raptor should be able to detect it. That'll be the missile sites."

"What kind of missiles?"

"They only have to hit you once. They're high explosive warheads, non-nuclear. Go in, record your information, jump back here, sort it out, and go back."

"And they won't suspect us?"

"I don't think so. Especially if there are just Centurions on the planet setting up defenses. And if you find the wreckage of a Raptor, destroy it. Don't let any jump computer fall into their hands."

"So you're saying go there, do two or three orbits, jump back here, land, go over the information, and go back?"

"No. Don't dock. You won't have time. Whoever's backseating for you will have to do it all. At least here, he'll not be under fire at the time."

Lee stared at Sharon. His eyes seemed to cut right through her, straight to the back of the chair. Sharon squirmed a bit at the CAG's evil eye.

"How can I trust you not to shoot me in the back?" Lee asked.

"You can't. And I'm better in a Raptor than you are. How good are you at backseating? Seriously, you don't want me flying the mission. This is one hop you need to find someone else to fly."

"You're turning me down?"

"I'm a disconnected Cylon. If I go, they'll know I'm there, and they'll know that your flight isn't just some random chance operation to find a clue as to what happened to the downed ship. I can't help you, and when you come back, we wouldn't have time to transfer the information and let me look at it."

"So, you want me to send…"

"Dammit, Captain, would you think about something? If I go, you're busted. Completely and totally. They will not assume you're innocent. I'm telling you what's best for you and your pilots, and that's not to send me." Sharon stood and walked in front of Lee's podium. "I want to go! I want to get your people back and I want to prove to you once and for all that I'm on your side. But I can't. If you say go, I'll go with you, if that's what it takes. You say suit up, and I'll beat you to the launch bay."

"The missiles, how high can they go?"

"Two types. One type will go to about 50,000 feet. The second type can get to sub-orbital altitudes, 250,000 feet or so. If you fly a sub-orbital recon, they won't shoot at you, the missiles are too scarce to use on targets that don't pose an imminent danger. If you get pinged, abort everything and run with whatever data you have, they'll have to give away the missile battery locations. And they can't pack up and move at a moment's notice, so if you get back in a couple hours, they will still be where you found 'em."

"Anything else you have to tell me?"

"Aside from apologizing for what I've done, no. Good luck and bring 'em home, Captain."

Lee looked at Sharon's big brown eyes. He wanted to say the magic words, to bring her on the mission. She could offer help, but if she was telling the truth, she would indeed endanger the entire mission. The fleet could not afford to lose more people, no matter their job.

"If you were going, who would you pick to backseat for you?"

Sharon breathed deeply. "I left that man behind on Caprica, Captain. In place of him, Racetrack will do fine for you."


	10. Mission Briefing: Kobol The Plan

"Here's the drill," Apollo said from his podium, this time addressing more pilots than Sharon. She was in attendance, dressed in a flight uniform. She didn't know why, it was a directive from CIC. "I'll fly Raptor 279 to Kobol. Racetrack, you're in the back seat. The plan is to do two orbits at 20 miles. We'll be screaming around the planet, so you'll have to run the sensors hot and soak up everything you can. Up to it?"

"Yes, sir," Racetrack said nervously. Apollo could tell she was scared out of her uniform.

"Hotdog, you won't have to do much. You'll be in Raptor 280. Once 279 comes back here, you'll dock with us in space and transfer Lieutenant Valerii to us. She'll help us analyze data, then you'll bring her back to Galactica. Nothing hard about it."

"Except that I'll be in a confined space with a Cylon, sir," Hotdog snapped.

"Those are your orders," Apollo replied firmly. "Do I need to find someone else to carry them out?"

"No, sir."

"Go pre-flight the Raptors," Apollo said to Racetrack and Hotdog. "We'll be in the pod in a few minutes."

"Yes, sir," the two lieutenants said in perfect unison as they saluted and left the briefing room.

"Good idea," Sharon said. "It'll save 30 minutes of landing and launching if I meet you out there. It slipped my mind."

"What else should we expect?"

"I doubt they have flak batteries yet. Those take a lot of time to set up. Just don't go below 10 miles or they'll open up with the low-flight missiles. And they won't be hesitant to do that."

Apollo looked at Sharon again. He couldn't believe he was carrying on a semi-casual conversation with a Cylon agent. Nor could he comprehend why the agent told him everything he wanted to know without torture or remorse for her fellow Cylons.

"You're thinking about this too much," Sharon observed. "You're trying to plan the whole mission before you know what it is. If you don't find signs of survivors, there's no point in going back. Data first, action second."

"That's deep insight."

"Nothing deep about it. It's the job at hand, and you're about to tangle with a force that does its job well. Hotdog's not too happy about this."

"He'll get over it. Are you getting along with the Marines?"

"As well as can be expected. They don't trust me, but they're not gonna kill me either."

"I'm sending two of them with you on 280. Just in case something happens."

"You think…"

"No, I don't. Hotdog may be a bit of a nutcase, but he'll also follow an order occasionally. Colonel Tigh told me about your test with Baltar. You know he and the Chief will be in the brig when we bring them back, don't you?"

Sharon nodded. "Tyrol didn't know. He suspected, especially when the word got out that Cylons weren't chrome toasters anymore. Baltar, on the other hand, he knew and did nothing about it..."

"And is ultimately responsible for my father being in sick bay. If he spoke up, we may have been able to stop you. I don't like the man. And if we go down there and find him dead, I probably won't complain."

"I left Helo behind for Baltar. Somehow, I don't think it was a fair trade."

"You know something about that, don't you?"

"More than I want to say right now. When I went on the base ship, I was flooded with data. It's all still in my head, just not sorted out. Baltar isn't an innocent soul. I promise you that."

"Tell me what you know," Lee asked, almost begging for the information.

"It started back on Caprica. The Cylons had an agent on Baltar, and the agent either put a virus into the defense computers or opened a hole in the program that could be hacked into by special Raiders. It was much easier than it should have been."

"When did reality set in with you?" Apollo asked.

"Throttle up when I left Helo behind. The destruction was immense, and to know I was a part of it, that snapped me out of my delusion. I'll tell more later, when I know it."

"Let's get to the bay and do this…"

"Captain," Sharon said, "I do want to go…"

"Not this time. Let's get our people and then worry about the next step."

"Yes, sir," Sharon answered, following Lee out of the briefing room.


	11. Success on Kobol?

AN: This is about Sharon, so I didn't go into details about the Kobol mission. She'll hear more about it as time goes on.

Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad I'm being read!

"Let's do this and get our people back," Lee announced to the hangar crew. "Hotdog, take up a position about 200 clicks from the Galactica. We'll jump 279 from there."

"Yes, sir," Hotdog said as he climbed into the back of his Raptor. Sharon and her Marine escorts followed and took up seats aft of the flight area.

Both Raptors cleared the port flight pod. About a minute after launch, Lee jumped his ship to Kobol. Hotdog, Sharon, and the guards impatiently waited for it to return. Sharon figured 45 minutes for the two orbit recon mission.

"22 seconds early," Sharon said as Raptor 279 blinked into view.

Hotdog held his position while 279 moved under him. Sharon heard the two Raptors connect and she opened the hatch between the pilot and the rear seat that allowed her to drop into the lower Raptor and check out the data.

Racetrack and Apollo looked like they'd been through a fight. Both were sweating even though the Raptor was quite cool.

"A squadron of Raiders came up from the surface," Lee said. "They weren't just checking us out."

"Great," Sharon muttered as Racetrack released the rear seat. "This may not be happening, you know that, right?"

"If it happens, it happens," Lee said. "What do you think?"

"12 degrees north latitude, the Cylons found the downed Raider," Sharon said as she looked at a picture of the area. I'll put the picture on your screen."

"Got it… so where would we hide?" Lee asked himself. "The tree line, that's where a flight officer would run to."

"There are two missile batteries there," Sharon said. "And a couple clusters of barrage balloons around the area. It won't be easy…"

"I never figured it would be. Hopefully, our people will see us and let us know where they are. Get back into 280 and let us go."

"Good luck," Sharon said. She climbed back to her ride and closed the hatch.

As soon as Hotdog landed on Galactica, guards took Sharon back to the lab for her to run more Cylon tests on blood samples. She processed vials for three hours before picking up the phone and calling CIC. Dee answered and gave the call to Colonel Tigh.

"Any word, sir?"

"None. Give them some time though…"

"This should have been done an hour ago, Colonel. Something's wrong."

"Are you saying what I think you're saying…"

"Let me go find them."

"Negative, you said it yourself, you can't go. Get some sleep, you sound like you need it."

"Where, sir? I can't go back to my rack."

"I'll have a cot sent down there to you. Stay in the lab, it seems to be safe."

"Yes, sir," Sharon said quickly.

Sharon watched the computer screen display negative test after negative test. The flashing green squares mesmerized her. The next thing she knew was Lee standing over her.

"Wake up, Lieutenant! You were right."

"Sir?"

"It took us a little longer to get home than we thought, but we're back. We got Cally, the Chief, and Baltar. Cally's in sick bay, something bad happened to her down there. As for the Chief and Baltar, they're both in the brig. The Vice-President is crazy, he was talking about a blond Cylon that did everything for him."

"She may have. When I saw the data, Six was the one who messed with the defense computers. He's not getting out of that brig anytime soon, is he?"

"After what you proved, I seriously doubt it. You're more valuable than he is. Tigh said something about talking to Roslin, and I think they're going to look for a new VP."

Sharon sighed. "Good. What about the Chief?"

"I don't know. And if I were you, I'd steer clear of the brig. He's not happy right now."

"That's one order I don't have to hear twice."


End file.
